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GNN HQ

jallard

Member
Messages
73
I am having A terrible understanding of how this HQ system works and I am about out of patience. Is there a single command code that will do it all for me? I mean, everything. As far as available materials I have a "bat" code that will give me 1,000 of everything.
 
not really? it's a end game system designed to test your mastery of settlement building and give you a giant organization to run, so it's gonna be complex.

don't feel like you have to. you can always walk away and do other things you find more interesting. i have, in many play throughs since C2 came out, never once made it all the way to the end of SS2C2_Sirick_MQ27 "Commonwealth Rising".

what, specifically, are you having trouble with? we might be able to give you some pointers (or cheats) to get you over that hurdle.
 
Basically understanding how the system works. I see green arrows in different places but what do I do next? At one point I selected everything... rooms and the like but I didn't see anything happen. I did manage to select Jake as the facilities director. But I haven't been able to select Aiden as head of security. Why did they make it so complicated? I am 75 years old not a spring chicken.
 
So you might be interested in the wiki topic on this, but here is a basic overview:

The headquarters is basically a corporation, and you are the CEO. you don't get involved in the day to day running of stuff, you are really just there to supervise and guide the overall path. to that end, you have department heads who do certain day to day functions. while they all start with default people in the slots, you can always change them using the desk:
  • Mansfield is typically in charge of facilities, rooms and such.
  • Jake is usually in charge of engineering, elect-chickens and plumbers.
  • Aiden is mostly in charge of security, dudes what shoot dudes what want bad for us dudes.
  • Lupe commonly runs Logistics, in charge of settlement agreements and actually getting stuff to put in the HQ
  • Theresa is ordinarily in charge of administration, as a people person with enough demolitions experience to really solve people problems for good this time.
  • there's another department, but that's a secret tool we'll need later.
to that end, your typical involvement with the HQ is checking in with your staff (or via the hud) to see if there is anything they need, and commanding projects (through the settlement build menu) to get that thing done. for the early part of HQ, this typically means going into facilities and telling them to clean a room, and then later telling them to construct something in that room like living quarters. i went over this in a little bit more detail in another thread.

one other important interaction is recruiting. for this, you'll want to get the Vit-O-Matic from that vault 81 quest and a Recruitment Clipboard from theresa's desk, and go out into the settlements and find people with high stats to work at HQ. each department has a preferred stat, and the total of that stat for all members of that department (plus some other factors like admin policies and training levels) provides energy for the department to take on projects. go find a settler, hit em with the Vigor Tester, see if they have good stats, then equip the recruitment clipboard and talk them into joining the HQ.

you'll also want to make sure the right people get into the right department by managing that departments staff using the build menu. this is implemented as a different psudovendor (like selecting building plans for plots) for each department, and you want to "Sell" the staff to the department where you want them assigned and "buy" anyone back who you don't want assigned to that department.

as you get further into the HQ story, you will do different projects. Supply lines are very important, and allow settlements producing more then they need to give to the HQ. you can also set up a training rooms and HR policies to improve your staff performance, design and build upgrades for the Comm Hub, send out missionaries and patrols with the good news of shooting that raider in the head and passing out ASAMs, and much more ambitious things (secret tool for later).

but the basic interaction of creating projects via the build menu is mostly how you do this.
 
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This is what I currently see: When I was trying to select Aiden to Security I could not find security on the list. Like Lupe, where does she belong? I also selected the entire facility but I don't see anything happening. No indication that anything is being done?

HQ.jpg
 
what do you see in the settlement build menu? that's where most of the action happens.
 
Judging by your last screenshot (nice top by the way. where's that from?) you are right about the point where Mansfield is having you build his office. So i would open the settlement build menu and check the Facilities menu for any Cleaning or Construction projects that you can start.

Logistics and administration are later departments opened by following the quests and playing through the story. don't worry about them for now.
 
I'd say the markers are mostly misleading in the tutorial. They'll show you where the room is but you should still do what the quest wants in "command mode" (same as "workshop mode" but for HQ). So if you need to clear out a room, go into workshop - facilities - clean. If you need to build something (more options show up as you clean rooms): workshop - facilities - construction.
Assigning people can be done like this: workshop mode - department (Facilities/Engineering/Whatever else) - manage. Preferably people with good stats for their job cause living space is limited and you have to build more quarters for them. As the quest tells you. If you look at the HUD in workshop mode, it shows how much you have of all resources, how many people in each department and how many jobs you can assign there, how many people can be recruited to HQ before you need more living quarters.
All this can be done while standing in one spot, in workshop mode.
Good stats are STR for facilities, PER for engineering, AGI for security, also END and CHR and something else for future departments (trying not to spoil too much)
To make your life easier: you can go into the holotape options and turn Disasters off. Also in HQ options pick "override timers" (so everything after tutorial is just as fast). Later you'd need stuff from settlements, if you did everything correctly according to quest but it's still not showing up (or you don't want to upgrade settlements to produce more resources) (or you can't be bothered and just in it for the story) just use the god mode command and ignore any requirements. (~ to enter console, type tgm, enter, ~ to leave console. then the same when you're done)
HQ is a pretty fun system when you get to understand and tinker with it, lets you do a lot of stuff in your wannabe faction office. It can also be frustrating so there's that.
 
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It's been asked quite a lot, but it bears repeating here. There is not currently any way to "shortcut" building HQ, but kinggath has said they're looking into doing something to make it shorter/less hassle once Chapter 3 comes out - because it seems we will NEED the place at least a bit built up for what comes next. Probably not "complete", but at least every department operational and probably enough room for another NPC or two and presumably the Armory (down in the basement) will be important in Ch3 too.

Just remember that the "quest" tab in your Pipboy should tell you what it wants you to do, even if the NPCs only say it vaguely.

There are complex technical reasons HQ is operated the way it is; in short, it's nigh impossible to dynamically detect where you built things, so instead it's just choosing from a menu where each item in your build mode "knows" where it goes - this does mean it's a pain in the rear to figure out what it means though (like who even remembers which way West is ingame). If it helps, think of it as being that you're shouting orders at people as you walk around, and they'll go do it - like how Mansfield "demonstrates" by telling the first Concord Settler he sees that they're a janitor now.

Don't stress if you can't "100% complete" the place at the moment, though; of the "rewards" for doing so, most of them will be useless or near-useless by the time you get them anyway.

I should add a couple things to my notes of what to go over in my "tutorial"stream in a couple days
 
If it helps, think of it as being that you're shouting orders at people as you walk around, and they'll go do it - like how Mansfield "demonstrates" by telling the first Concord Settler he sees that they're a janitor now.
That's more like the normal SS2 settlement building. HQ is closer to sending the workers an email from your office when you want shit done. Or a more modern analogy, a voice message from your phone when you arrive in the middle of the day (or night if they're unlucky).
Edit: actually it does look like "adding to the board", as Jake calls it. We let the department heads know what we want, then they pass it on. Hey Sneake, boss said go punch some ferals. Strong, you can tag along too. And bring Preston, he's slacking. Then he needs you over at facilities to move some cabinets. Said he might even pay you for that.
 
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The headquarters is basically a corporation, and you are the CEO.

never once in my entire professional career has the CEO come up to me and said "hey sarah! go put that server right there, no right there, no there". the ceo doesn't care; all they want to know is that the CRM project is on track. the CIO who reports to the CEO on IT stuff doesn't care; they just want to know the server infra will be done in time for consultants to install the CRM software. the IT operations director MIGHT care, but only in a "you got those servers done, right? need them for next quarter" way. the server infrastucture manager, my boss, definitely does care, but again, in a "6 servers by next week, sarah" way. (side note: actually by this point in my career, i'm more likely to be outside this chain telling people why it's not working, but this is a better analogy)

for that model, i think the HQ does a remarkably effective job of giving the feeling of distance that comes with driving a large organization. you don't do it yourself like manual settlement building is supposed to evoke, you don't tell people what to do like plotting and selecting building plans suggests, and you don't fully let it run itself like city plans gestures at. it's very much setting a goal ("hey, go use that room we just cleared for power generators"), and trusting your staff to get it done (project "did a thing" has completed at the headquarters).

i will freely admit navigation needs some work, and there's still a bunch of sharp edges using the room controllers, but the line and goal are really really good. you'd almost think Kinggath and Sirick are dealing with the transition from solo developers to running a large team and worked it out through the headquarters plot, or something?
 
I'd say the markers are mostly misleading in the tutorial. They'll show you where the room is but you should still do what the quest wants in "command mode" (same as "workshop mode" but for HQ). So if you need to clear out a room, go into workshop - facilities - clean. If you need to build something (more options show up as you clean rooms): workshop - facilities - construction.
Assigning people can be done like this: workshop mode - department (Facilities/Engineering/Whatever else) - manage. Preferably people with good stats for their job cause living space is limited and you have to build more quarters for them. As the quest tells you. If you look at the HUD in workshop mode, it shows how much you have of all resources, how many people in each department and how many jobs you can assign there, how many people can be recruited to HQ before you need more living quarters.
All this can be done while standing in one spot, in workshop mode.
Good stats are STR for facilities, PER for engineering, AGI for security, also END and CHR and something else for future departments (trying not to spoil too much)
To make your life easier: you can go into the holotape options and turn Disasters off. Also in HQ options pick "override timers" (so everything after tutorial is just as fast). Later you'd need stuff from settlements, if you did everything correctly according to quest but it's still not showing up (or you don't want to upgrade settlements to produce more resources) (or you can't be bothered and just in it for the story) just use the god mode command and ignore any requirements. (~ to enter console, type tgm, enter, ~ to leave console. then the same when you're done)
HQ is a pretty fun system when you get to understand and tinker with it, lets you do a lot of stuff in your wannabe faction office. It can also be frustrating so there's that.
Thank you so much. Now I understand… sort of!?! My son would respond jokingly with: “Well you’re old Pops!”
 
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Judging by your last screenshot (nice top by the way. where's that from?) you are right about the point where Mansfield is having you build his office. So i would open the settlement build menu and check the Facilities menu for any Cleaning or Construction projects that you can start.

Logistics and administration are later departments opened by following the quests and playing through the story. don't worry about them for now.
That top is part of the CBBE VTAW 1 outfit.
 
I'd say the markers are mostly misleading in the tutorial. They'll show you where the room is but you should still do what the quest wants in "command mode" (same as "workshop mode" but for HQ). So if you need to clear out a room, go into workshop - facilities - clean. If you need to build something (more options show up as you clean rooms): workshop - facilities - construction.
Assigning people can be done like this: workshop mode - department (Facilities/Engineering/Whatever else) - manage. Preferably people with good stats for their job cause living space is limited and you have to build more quarters for them. As the quest tells you. If you look at the HUD in workshop mode, it shows how much you have of all resources, how many people in each department and how many jobs you can assign there, how many people can be recruited to HQ before you need more living quarters.
All this can be done while standing in one spot, in workshop mode.
Good stats are STR for facilities, PER for engineering, AGI for security, also END and CHR and something else for future departments (trying not to spoil too much)
To make your life easier: you can go into the holotape options and turn Disasters off. Also in HQ options pick "override timers" (so everything after tutorial is just as fast). Later you'd need stuff from settlements, if you did everything correctly according to quest but it's still not showing up (or you don't want to upgrade settlements to produce more resources) (or you can't be bothered and just in it for the story) just use the god mode command and ignore any requirements. (~ to enter console, type tgm, enter, ~ to leave console. then the same when you're done)
HQ is a pretty fun system when you get to understand and tinker with it, lets you do a lot of stuff in your wannabe faction office. It can also be frustrating so there's that.
I did everything but override timers. Missed that one. I am determined to use the HQ system. I love the banter between Jake and Aiden. (I have worked with real people like those two.) I also love the dialogue between my protagonist and Jake. I love teasing him. He's so easy. (I love how she sometimes acts dumb or sarcastic and how Jake barely notices.)
 

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My favourite reply is "I'm paying attention" :)
I suggested override timers since all projects take 1 to 3 game days and you either skip that time anyway or go do whatever else. But if you're like me and already seen the game in and out, there's not much to do anymore. Maybe I shouldn't have rushed it, now that it actually works properly. It's a joy to see everything building up. Maybe I should've played with disasters but from what I've heard, they're still far from fixed. The fires and infestations, anyway. Deserters can be pretty fun to handle.
 
I did everything but override timers. Missed that one. I am determined to use the HQ system. I love the banter between Jake and Aiden. (I have worked with real people like those two.) I also love the dialogue between my protagonist and Jake. I love teasing him. He's so easy. (I love how she sometimes acts dumb or sarcastic and how Jake barely notices.)
My favourite reply is "I'm paying attention" :)
I suggested override timers since all projects take 1 to 3 game days and you either skip that time anyway or go do whatever else. But if you're like me and already seen the game in and out, there's not much to do anymore. Maybe I shouldn't have rushed it, now that it actually works properly. It's a joy to see everything building up. Maybe I should've played with disasters but from what I've heard, they're still far from fixed. The fires and infestations, anyway. Deserters can be pretty fun to handle.
I can't handle HQs multileveled maze. (Hate mazes, and hate chess-like nonsense, and puzzles.) I want to go from point A to point B, not from point A to A2/3 to Z1 to get to B.) Hell, I can't even find Mansfield's office let alone anything else. It is mind-boggling. I really wish there was one very simple way to clear the entire HQ. I wish there was an indicator as to where everything was. It gets to the point where I get so frustrated that I actually get sick. (My COPD kicks in.)
 
I can't handle HQs multileveled maze. (Hate mazes, and hate chess-like nonsense, and puzzles.) [...]
you might be interested in this map put together by our lovely wiki goddess Cessori, which might help you figure out what rooms are where and what they can do.
or potentially the back end modder resource HQ Room Configs that has similar information but more detail for developers.
 
you might be interested in this map put together by our lovely wiki goddess Cessori, which might help you figure out what rooms are where and what they can do.
or potentially the back end modder resource HQ Room Configs that has similar information but more detail for developers.
Thanks but now I am stuck with no energy to build even a toilet. and everyone has been assigned to facilities, but I have only 4. Sucks to be me huh?
 
you might be interested in this map put together by our lovely wiki goddess Cessori, which might help you figure out what rooms are where and what they can do.
or potentially the back end modder resource HQ Room Configs that has similar information but more detail for developers.
I can take no credit for the Maps/Floor Plans, those are KingGath's - I only presented them on a Wiki page with room names that aren't in Creation Kit (CK) format like on the HQ Room Configs page for modders.

@jallard
There are other settings you can use to make HQ easier also.
Please see the Tips at the bottom of the City Manager Holotape Settings for HQ page.
 
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